Infotainment refers to a type of media that provides a combination of information and entertainment. Infotainment systems in vehicles, sometimes referred to as “in-vehicle entertainment” or “in-vehicle infotainment”, are collections of hardware devices installed in vehicles or other forms of transportation to provide audio or audiovisual infotainment including, for example, radio, television, MP3s, automotive navigation or other signal and information processing such as surround sound.
A head unit, sometimes referred to as “deck” or “receiver”, is a component of an infotainment system in a vehicle or home cinema system that provides a unified hardware interface for the various components of an electronic media system. The head unit is the centerpiece of the vehicle's sound system. Head units give the user control over the vehicle's entertainment media such as Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) radio, analog amplitude/frequency modulation (AM/FM) radio, MP3s, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation, Bluetooth, etc. Head units also afford the user precise control over detailed audio functions such as volume, speaker balance, speaker fade, bass, treble, equalization (EQ) and so on. Several companies are integrating more advanced systems into vehicles' head units that can control vehicular functions such as door chimes and even offer vehicle data such as trouble warnings and odometer information; such head units thus serve as secondary instrument panels. Typically located in the center of the dashboard, modern head units are densely integrated electronic packages fixed in vehicles with detachable faceplates housing graphical user interfaces. As head units are expensive and are therefore common targets for theft, many are integrated into the vehicles' alarm systems.